Notre Dame tops out at state swimming finals

Saturday

Mar 1, 2014 at 7:28 PM

Stan MorrisOF THE JOURNAL STAR

EVANSTON — Notre Dame played a part of a downstate uprising Saturday at the state swimming and diving finals.

The Irish earned six medals, scored 65 points and finished eighth in the team standings of the meet typically dominated by Chicago-area talent. Normal University High won five events, including the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relays, and became the first team outside the Chicago area to capture the team championship since Rockford in 1933.

Notre Dame senior Jared Schimmelpfenning placed second in the 200-yard freestyle in a school-record time of 1 minute, 40.18 seconds, third in the 500 free and anchored the Irish to a sixth-place medal in the 200 free relay.

Irish junior Matt Kamin came in fourth in the 200 free (1:41.01), fifth in the 100 free (:46.36) and also swam on the 200 free relay. ND senior Max Reynold remained 12th in diving. Sophomores Sam Neaveill and Charlie Schneider also swam on ND's 200 free relay.

Richwoods senior Noah Hanold earned a ninth-place medal in the 100 breastroke and Dunlap came in 10th in the 200 medley relay.

“There’s a lot of mixed emotions,” Irish coach Shawn Ribordy said. “It certainly was not the day we’d been preparing for all season. I don’t think it’s a secret we were going for an individual state title for Jared. (That) mixed with the emotion of greatest state swim meet in the history of our school, boys or girls. It was just a really impressive showing by these boys.”

Notre Dame has now earned 18 individual and five relay medals since 2008.

In the 200, Schimmelpfenning stayed with leader Adam Drury most of the race before the Normal U-High senior pulled away late. Drury finished in 1:38.96, ahead of Schimmelpfenning’s 1:40.18.

“I thought it was a pretty close race,” said Schimmelpfenning, owner of seven state medals. “Lifetime best, so I can’t really complain. I bettered my placement and got a best time. I was pretty slow getting into my walls … and I think that cost me decent amount of time over the eight lengths.”

Kamin also set a personal best in the 200 from lane 5, just behind third-place finisher Murph McQuet from Winnetka New Trier (1:40.54).

“I’m pretty happy with it, best time,” Kamin said. “I just felt a little more tired than I was yesterday from all the effort yesterday and I felt like I couldn’t really turn it over as much as I did like yesterday in the second half, but I just went out there to swim my race and see what would happen.”

Schimmelpfenning fell victim to the Bloomington-Normal blitz in the 500, finishing third in 4:34.09 — behind champion Jake Miller of U-High (4:28.36) and Michael Wolfe of Bloomington (4:32.09). Miller also set a state record in the 200 individual medley (1:48.08).

“They’re just having a good day, good meet,” added Schimmelpfenning. “I was a little off this weekend across the board. It just happens some time. I can’t really ask for anything more left in the water.”

Kamin upped his prelims seed by one in the 100, an event Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Ryan Held captured with his second state record, :43.73. Held won the 50 in a record-setting :19.76.

“I was trying to see if I could go any higher than sixth, and I did, so I’m very happy about that,” Kamin said. “On the last 25, I really tried to gun it in there hard.”

Reynolds upped his 11-dive score to 368.4 — just 1.9 points from 11th.

“I just thought it was a lot of fun,” he said. “I was really excited to be here with all the people. I’m just happy to be representing downstate.”

Dunlap moved up one place, getting fourth in the 200 medley relay consolation finals to finish 10th overall. The Eagles foursome of sophomores Jared Tyre and Collin O’Brien and seniors Tony Feng and Jake Vandermyde went 1:36.21, just .19 slower than prelims.

“We didn’t really get our goals, but I still think we had a good race and I’m happy with 10th place,” Feng said. “First relay (medal) in Dunlap history. I’m proud of that. It took a lot of hard work to get here.”

Hanold finished third in his 100 breaststroke consolation final, dropping two spots to ninth, in :58.65.

“The season was good, but this weekend was not worth remembering,” said Hanold, who was the No. 5 seed after sectionals.